Ranking the New England Patriots’ five Super Bowl rosters since 2007

The 2018 NFL season marked Pro Football Focus’s 12th collecting data on every single play of every single NFL game.Next Sunday will also mark the fifth time in that span that the New England Patriots will be representing the AFC in the Super Bowl.With grades on all those rosters heading into the big game, let’s see how this year’s Patriots team stacks up talent wise with the other four.This team was in a class all on its own.Everyone knows about the offense.This team had Randy Moss in his prime.Tom Brady in his prime.Wes Welker in his prime.The O-line featured Logan Mankins and Matt Light blocking for Laurence Maroney in the best season of his career (he broke 16 tackles in three playoff games).[Nick Foles should scare the Patriots, and the Eagles, in the Super Bowl] What fewer people remember was the fact that this was arguably the best defense the Pats have had as well.Vince Wilfork and Ty Warren had the third- and 13th-best run-stop percentages, respectively, among interior defenders (back when run defense mattered in the NFL).Adalius Thomas collected a ridiculous 11 pressures in that Super Bowl.On the back end, Asante Samuel allowed catches at the 13th-lowest rate of any corner that year and Rodney Harrison was a top-20 graded safety.This is nearly an identical roster to 2018 except for one huge difference – a healthy Rob Gronkowski.They subbed Brandin Cooks in for Julian Edelman offensively and Stephon Gilmore in for Logan Ryan defensively.Cooks has added a downfield dimension to the offense that wasn’t present last year with 608 deep receiving yards during the regular season – the second-most in the NFL.Gilmore has been a significant upgrade on the back end as well, receiving the highest grade of any corner in the league from Week 12 on.[Super Bowl prediction: Patriots will beat the Eagles by 5-plus points] The front-seven has taken a couple hits from a season ago with the injury to Dont’a Hightower and losses of Chris Long and Jabaal Sheard, but James Harrison and Trey Flowers’s breakout have mitigated that in the postseason.This offense is simply a different animal with Gronk healthy.His 2.32 yards per route including the postseason is far and away the best among tight ends this year.This was arguably the top offensive line Brady has had in any of his Super Bowls.Their starters and their rank among all players at their position (left and right tackles/guards are grouped) can be seen below.This was the now-infamous two-tight-end season that featured both Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez heavily.Gronk’s 95.7overall grade that season is still the PFF single-season record for the position while Hernandez’s 89.0was fourth-best at the position.[The Eagles’ upset over the Patriots in the Super Bowl starts here] Defensively, this was Rob Ninkovich in his prime.He played 1,126 snaps including the postseason, his first of five straight playing over 1,000 snaps.Besides the players mentioned previously, the other key advantage the 2018 team had